According to the Department for Work and Pensions, benefit fraud cost British taxpayers a record £7.3bn in 2017. A wave of criminality has swept Britain.
The DWP attributed the increase to the public’s increasing willingness to commit fraud, especially people who are trying to cheat the benefit system.
The latest annual report of the Department warns that the total fraud bill for the country is not likely to decrease any time soon.
The report cited the “increasing tendency for fraud in society” and stated that “DWP does not expect Universal Credit fraud or error to return at the levels seen prior to the significant increase experienced during the Covid-19 Pandemic”.
The report added that “DWP’s forecasting has assumed a 5-percent increase in fraud behaviour every year.”
If the government fails to act, the amount of money lost annually to criminals is likely to rise to more than £10bn in the next 10 years.
The DWP stated that “a variety of evidence indicates a long-term trend of increasing fraudulent behaviour toward organisations and a softerening of attitudes towards fraud in the wider society”.
Cifas, a fraud database, shows that in the past two years offences have risen by 11pc each year. This is more than double the growth rate of 5pc seen before the pandemic.
This comes along with an increase in shoplifting. According to police data, thefts from stores reached a new high in April.
The DWP didn’t pinpoint the exact reasons for the recent increase, but said that the public was becoming more lenient.
According to the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS), more than a quarter of respondents believe that it is “not bad” or “only a little bit wrong” for a person receiving unemployment benefits to fail to declare cash earnings up to £3,000 from a casual employment.
27pc of the young adults say they would lie to an insurer in order to save money if they had financial problems.
The DWP has responded to these responses by stepping up its anti-fraud efforts, including a more thorough review of “suspicious Universal Credit claims.
DWP also said that it was “developing machine learning, a type of AI, to assist in the detection and prevention of fraud”.
The department has acknowledged that its efforts to reduce the bill might not succeed.
The report stated that “there is a risk” that the plans DWP put in place to reduce errors and fraud would not be successful due to a failure of the plan to achieve its goals, and/or an increased tendency to commit fraud within society.
Rachel Reeves announced on Monday that she would appoint an independent commissioner to recover billions of pounds in fraud relating to Covid’s procurement.
This week the process of selecting a Covid corruption Tsar will start. The Chancellor hopes to recover £2.6bn in fraudulent and flawed contracts that were signed during the pandemic.
A DWP spokesperson said: “This Government will not tolerate fraud and waste in any public service, including the Social Security system.
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